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Location of Ávila electoral district in Spain

Ávila is one of the 52 electoral districts (circunscripciones) used for the Spanish Congress of Deputies - the lower chamber of the Spanish Parliament, the Cortes Generales. It is one of the nine electoral districts which correspond to the provinces of Castile and León. Ávila is the largest town with only 43,000 voters out of the total electorate of nearly 144,000. There are no other municipalities with electorates over 10,000.

Boundaries and electoral system

Under Article 68 of the Spanish constitution [1] the boundaries must be the same as the province of Ávila and under Article 140 this can only be altered with the approval of congress. Voting is on the basis of universal suffrage in a secret ballot. The electoral system used is closed listproportional representation with seats allocated using the D'Hondt method. Only lists which poll 3% or more of all valid votes cast, including votes "en blanco" i.e. for "none of the above" can be considered for seats. Under article 12 of the constitution, the minimum voting age is 18.

Eligibility

Article 67.3 of the Spanish Constitution prohibits dual membership of the Cortes and regional assemblies, meaning that candidates must resign from Regional Assemblies if elected. Article 70 also makes active judges, magistrates, public defenders, serving military personnel, active police officers and members of constitutional and electoral tribunals ineligible. [1]

Number of members

Ávila has returned three members at every election since the restoration of democracy.

Under Spanish electoral law, all provinces are entitled to a minimum of 2 seats with a remaining 248 seats apportioned according to population. [2] These laws are laid out in detail in the 1985 electoral law. (Ley Orgánica del Régimen Electoral General) The practical effect of this has been to overrepreseent smaller provinces like Ávila at the expense of larger provinces. Ávila had a ratio of 47,989 voters per deputy in 2008 [3] a figure below the Spanish average of 100,209 voters per deputy [4] and the third smallest ratio of all after Teruel and Soria.

Results

Ávila has traditionally been the strongest district for the centre right and the PP had their best result here in percentage terms in 2004, although they polled better in Murcia in 2008. A smaller party, the Democratic and Social Centre (CDS) polled their best results here in the 1980s and 1990s and this was the only district where they outpolled other parties in any general election, which occurred in 1986.